American Rhetoric and the Vietnam War [Hardcover]

J. Justin Gustainis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 1993 | ISBN-10: 027593361X | ISBN-13: 978-0275933616

"Rhetoric during wartime is about the creation of consensus," writes Justin Gustainis. In American Rhetoric and the Vietnam War, he discusses efforts to build or destroy public support of America's most controversial war of the century. Gustainis analyzes several important aspects of Vietnam era rhetoric: presidential rhetoric, protest rhetoric, and the war as portrayed in popular culture. Broadly defining rhetoric as the deliberate use of symbols to persuade, the author explores partisan use of speeches, marches, songs, military campaigns, gestures, destruction of property, comic strips, and films. Part One, Prowar Rhetoric, opens with a chapter devoted to the domino theory as a "condensation symbol." Subsequent chapters discuss the hero myth in reference to Kennedy and the Green Berets, rhetoric and the Tet Offensive, and Nixon's "Silent Majority." Part Two examines antiwar rhetoric, and includes studies of Daniel Berrigan, SDS and the Port Huron Statement, and the Weathermen. Gustainis argues that the antiwar movement did not stop the war, and may have prolonged it. In Part Three, he analyzes Doonesbury as antiwar rhetoric, then turns to an examination of how the war has been portrayed in popular film. Gustainis includes a political, military, and rhetorical chronology of the war as an appendix. Recommended for scholars and students of rhetoric and political communication.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

J. JUSTIN GUSTAINIS is Associate Professor of Communication at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Praeger Publishers (April 30, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 027593361X
• ISBN-13: 978-0275933616
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,482,015 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Justin Gustainis grew up in northeastern Pennsylvania and is now a college professor living in upstate New York. Prior to his career in academe, he was, at various times, a soldier, garment worker, speechwriter and professional bodyguard. He earned Bachelors and Masters degrees from the University of Scranton (a school that figures prominently in several of his novels) and a Ph.D. from Bowling Green State University in Ohio.
Gustainis began writing fiction in the mid-1990s while maintaining his academic job. He focused initially on short stories, and won prizes in a number of writing contests, including the prestigious Raymond Carver story competition. His stories won the Graverson Award for Horror twice, in consecutive years. In 2008 he was accepted for and attended the Odyssey Writing Workshop.
His books include the novels THE HADES PROJECT (2003), BLACK MAGIC WOMAN (2008), EVIL WAYS (2009), SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL (2011) and HARD SPELL (2011), as well as an anthology he edited, THOSE WHO FIGHT MONSTERS: TALES OF OCCULT DETECTIVES (2011).
He was married to Patricia Grogan from 1997 until her death in 2007. He finds that he misses her very much.